Justice Reinvestment

Overview

From 2000 to 2010, Oregon’s incarceration rate doubled at a rate three times the national average, increasing the state’s biennial corrections budget by 40 percent, to more than $1.6 billion. In response to this rapid growth, the bipartisan interagency Commission on Public Safety was convened to analyze state corrections and sentencing policies. The commission’s recommendations became the foundation for House Bill (HB) 3194, known as the Justice Reinvestment Act, which the Oregon Legislature passed in 2013. HB 3194 made several modest sentencing changes and created the Justice Reinvestment Grant Program with the goal of reducing prison populations, reducing recidivism, increasing public safety, and holding offenders accountable.

Justice Reinvestment is Oregon’s proactive approach to spending resources more effectively by controlling prison growth and investing the avoided operational prison costs in the state’s local public safety systems. In the 2013-15 biennium, $15 million was distributed among all 36 counties to begin their Justice Reinvestment programs. For the 2015-17 biennium, the grant program was funded in the amount of $38.7 million. The 2017-19 biennium the Legislature approve $40.1 million to be allocated to the grant program.

Prior to the passage of HB 3194, the April 2013 corrections forecast estimated that Oregon should plan to house 15,706 inmates in state prisons by July 1, 2019. The latest forecast, issued April 2017, calls for only 14,867 inmates by that same date, a reduction of 839 inmates. As a result of the slowing growth of the prison population, Justice Reinvestment is projected to result in more than $250 million in avoided costs for Oregon by the end of the 2017-19 biennium. Of those avoided costs, $140 million are attributed to delaying the need to build a new male prison facility in Junction City until late 2025. Other avoided costs include $52 million in the 2017-19 biennium from avoided Department of Corrections (DOC) operational costs due to housing, feeding, and supervising a smaller incarcerated population.

Program Goals

The Justice Reinvestment Grant Program is administered by the CJC and requires a data-driven approach to (1) analyze criminal justice trends to understand drivers of local prison use; (2) promote the effective implementation of investments that increase public safety and improve offender accountability; (3) measure the impact of policy changes and reinvestment resources; and (4) tie results to future funding. Proposed programs should be based on existing research and evidence-based practices.

The purpose of this grant program is to provide funding for counties to plan, implement, or expand initiatives that meet ALL four goals of Justice Reinvestment: